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US 'condemns' N. Ireland shootings
2009-03-08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Sunday it "condemns" the killing of two British soldiers by suspected republican dissidents in Northern Ireland. "The United States condemns the attack in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, last night that resulted in two deaths and injuries to others," acting US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. "We call on all parties in Northern Ireland to unequivocally reject such senseless acts of violence, whose intention is to destroy the peace that so many in Northern Ireland have worked so hard to achieve." The soldiers were killed and four others were seriously wounded late Saturday when two gunmen pulled up outside their barracks northwest of Belfast and sprayed up to 40 shots in two long bursts of gunfire, police said. The gunmen, armed with automatic weapons, then fled in a car driven by an accomplice, according to police. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but initial suspicions fell on dissident republicans opposed to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that effectively ended three decades of bloody sectarian strife. The shooting at the Royal Engineers' Massereene barracks in County Antrim was the first deadly attack on British troops in Northern Ireland since a soldier was shot dead by a sniper in February 1997.
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